China builds 1.20 lakh kms of road network in Tibet

The total length of roads operational in Tibet exceeded 120,000 km last year as China ramped up its infrastructure projects in the remote Himalayan region, the regional transport department said on Thursday.

Beijing: The total length of roads operational in Tibet exceeded 120,000 km last year as China ramped up its infrastructure projects in the remote Himalayan region, the regional transport department said on Thursday.

In Tibet, five townships and 67 administrative villages gained access to hard roads in 2021. This made hard roads reach 94.55 percent of the region's total townships and 77.94 percent of the total administrative villages by the end of the year, the department said.

China has been ramping up infrastructure in Tibet. Last year it launched a high-speed bullet train service connecting the provincial capital Lhasa with Nyingchi, the Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh. The massive development of rail, road and airport development was expected to vastly improve the Chinese military's ability to move men, materials and weapons to the border areas at a faster pace.

Tibet has five airports, including at Nyingchi, Shigatse and Ngari located close to the Indian and Nepal borders. Authorities in Tibet accelerated 15 key construction projects last year, including the middle section of the highway from the regional capital Lhasa to Xigaze.

Meanwhile, the region completed preparations for the supporting project to transport labour and materials for the construction of the railway linking Tibet and its neighbouring Sichuan Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Tibet completed an investment worth 20.1 billion yuan (about USD 3.2 billion) in fixed assets for road transport last year, Xu Wenqiang, head of the department said.

PTI